I want to build a powerful PC for work (paid for by my employer!) for data processing. I work with large economic data sets (~20 GB) which is very RAM heavy work, because the data need to be loaded into memory to be used. I do some parallel processing etc. but ultimately I just want an all around powerful machine. I put together a wishlist over at Newegg, and I just want some feedback on compatibility of components (primarily PSU with...everything) and to know if I'm missing anything. I DO plan on overclocking, hence the cooler. I have built one PC before, but never used a liquid cooler. Other than that, I think this is definitely doable. Please let me know what you think! Now without further ado, here is the build -

I'd be leery of overclocking anything I'm using for work, but the most interesting thing I've heard about AIO coolers is that kits built from a single metal (i.e. copper block+copper radiator or aluminum block+aluminum radiator) last longer due to less corrosion over time. Having never bought one, I can't verify that myself, but it may be something to consider if you're holding on to the system for more than a year.

Have you considered whether you need ECC memory support? Are you running any kind of calculation where the integrity of the data is paramount? Those may be other reasons to skip the overclocking and/or look into a Xeon platform.

If you are doing something where the results mean money.. and it sounds like you are.. don't overclock and I recommend going with a Xeon Ivy-Bridge E part and with ECC memory on the motherboard instead of with a 4930K.

1) Don't overclock it. Just get a faster CPU. It's silly to overclock something you need to actually run and need it to run correctly.

2) Faster disk IO will help. There are several ways to go. There are FusionIO PCIe SSDs, SSDs, SSDs in hardware RAID, and lots of HDs in hardware RAID. Ideally, I would go with a 120-240GB boot SSD, and a FusionIO card to house the swap and dataset. The next best configuration would be a 120-240GB boot SSD, and 4-6 SSDs in RAID10 housing the swap and dataset. Finally, SSD boot drive plus 8+ 7200rpm+ HDs in RAID 10.

3) I would look at Nvidia over AMD for the video card. Are you going to be running code on the video card? The Geforce 750/750 Ti is more power efficient.

tu2thepoo wrote:I'd be leery of overclocking anything I'm using for work, but the most interesting thing I've heard about AIO coolers is that kits built from a single metal (i.e. copper block+copper radiator or aluminum block+aluminum radiator) last longer due to less corrosion over time. Having never bought one, I can't verify that myself, but it may be something to consider if you're holding on to the system for more than a year.

Have you considered whether you need ECC memory support? Are you running any kind of calculation where the integrity of the data is paramount? Those may be other reasons to skip the overclocking and/or look into a Xeon platform.

You're talking about galvanic corrosion, and I've never seen that in bimetal joints unless there is electrical current or conductive liquids involved. I don't believe that it would have any meaning in the lifespan of a heatsink (5-10 years, tops), but I'm disagreeing, not saying that you're wrong.

chuckula wrote:If you are doing something where the results mean money.. and it sounds like you are.. don't overclock and I recommend going with a Xeon Ivy-Bridge E part and with ECC memory on the motherboard instead of with a 4930K.

I agree. A work machine should not be OCed, and use ECC RAM if accuracy is important.

Forge wrote:You're talking about galvanic corrosion, and I've never seen that in bimetal joints unless there is electrical current or conductive liquids involved. I don't believe that it would have any meaning in the lifespan of a heatsink (5-10 years, tops), but I'm disagreeing, not saying that you're wrong.

If the coolant is water-based, it is conductive. However, for galvanic corrosion to be an issue there also needs to be an electrical connection between the two metals (in addition to the metals both being in contact with the conductive liquid). So, e.g., if you've got a waterblock and radiator made of dissimilar metals, and both of them are grounded, yes you will have galvanic corrosion. If they are electrically isolated from each other, you'll probably be fine.

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

I chose to toss the liquid cooler since overclocking seems like a bad idea. I subbed in a Rosewill cooler with good reviews. Thoughts? Any other issues that come to mind with the new build? Does that thermal paste look good? I haven't used the stuff before.

Regarding ECC and Xeon processors, I am going to pass on this. Results don't mean money in my case, and while work is paying for this, the existing build maxed out the budget.

There's nothing wrong with that Rosewill cooler, it should do the job fine, but for my 0.02$, I'll give the nod to Coolermaster's 212 lineup. I have one, and haven't bothered getting the ~15$ mounting kit I would need to use my 120$ Noctua HSF instead.

I really love how everything is nice routed and hidden, the case is easy to get in and out of, it's X79 based, 8 DIMM slots, Xeon 4c/8t, good warranty, and this one was about 1600$ shipped. We had 64GB of ram on hand, used that, and it's for a developer, so low end graphics. Still, with some small changes it might hit your budget, it has three years of warranty, and businesses love Dell, since they offer warranty and financing.

I built a 16C 32T dual SandyBridge E Xeon workstation for under $1500 using ES chips bought off eBay. Not saying you should do this for your setup, but considering the price compared to more legitimate solutions(~5x the price), it might be worth it to experiment with it first, before settling on the final solution.

In my case, this machine was a prototype for a high performance build server. If this worked well, we would purchase several of the official solutions(which cost ~$7000) from our vendors. Our builds typically take ~1.5 hours on a 4C machine. This machine was supposed to cut that down to 30 minutes. We ended up only speeding up the build to around 1 hour. Considering that the build wasn't as fast as we had hoped, the entire idea was scrapped. I had paid using my credit card and I never expensed it. So I took it home.

It now sits on my desk, no case. I added a couple of SSDs to it + and a couple of GPUs - it has been my work/gamestation at home for about a year now.

I will agree with Forge and suggest this:$35or$33 CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo

I also notice that your wishlist contains two very expensive ATX cases ($395). Here's an opportunity to save some of your budget for more productive components.$60 -10MIR Corsair Carbide 200Ror$70 +10sh NZXT H230